The King of Madison Avenue

The first book I ever read about advertising was David Ogilvy’s “Confessions of an Advertising Man.”

One of the smartest things I ever did in my life was to take Ogilvy’s advice to read Claude Hopkins’ book “Scientific Advertising” at least seven times.

I did – and many more times than that. I still read it along with Hopkins’ autobiography “My Life in Advertising.”

Now there’s a brand new – and excellent – biography of David Ogilvy written by long time colleague and Ogilvy & Mather adman Kenneth Roman: “The King of Madison Avenue”

There’s so much of value in this new bio – but here’s one gem.

Here Ogilvy describes his company Ogilvy & Mather:

“..the most precious asset we have is probably our ETHOS – the spirit which binds all our offices together all over the world (Note: O&M had over 100 offices.) It embraces:

Intellectual honesty – with our clients and with each other
Thoroughness – as opposed to superficiality
Professionalism – in everything we do
The emphasis we place on character – in choosing people for key jobs
Pride in O&M – tempered by unrelenting discontent with our shortcomings.”

I like all these Ogilvy principles, especially the last: “Pride…tempered by unrelenting discontent.”

It’s a marathon, not a sprint

If you’re giving it your all and you’re working to the highest possible standards, you should be proud of your efforts.

But if you’re smart and you intend to continue succeeding year after year, you’ll realize that best is still yet to come and you’re only really just getting warmed up no matter what success you’ve had.

Technique is important, but it can’t replace this kind of deep-in-the-bones dedication to doing things right.

In that spirit, I’m happy to say that 2010 will mark our sixteenth consecutive year of offering fundamentally sound, cutting edge, and principled training in Internet marketing.

This year, Drayton Bird, a direct marketing pro with over forty years experience will be joining us in Chicago as a featured speaker at System 2010.

Among other things, Drayton is an alumnus of Ogilvy & Mather.

Drayton sold his UK direct marketing agency to O&M, became one of their key DM executives, and was the person Ogilvy entrusted with teaching direct marketing principles throughout the agency’s 100 + worldwide offices.

Details about the event

For more information about System Seminar 2010, Drayton Bird and the rest of our faulty: Click here

P.S .If you’re reading this before December 31, 2009 and you intend to join us in Chicago, please note that the super “early bird” tuition discount deadline offer expires December 31, 2009.

For more information about System Seminar 2010: Click here

– Ken McCarthy

P.S. For over 25 years I’ve been sharing the simple but powerful things that matter in business with my clients.

If you’d like direction for your business that will work today, tomorrow and twenty years from now, visit us at the System Club.